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Discover, write, recite, and celebrate National Poetry Month with KLRU! Thanks to the Academy of American Poets and their initiative to highlight and introduce the pleasures of poetry, April has been dedicated to explore the art since 1996. KLRU works to support the local arts through our programming and partners with other local arts organizations. He

Spoken 4 All on Arts In Context
Austin’s spoken word performers take center stage as part of KLRU’s focus on the arts. Also known as “slam poetry,” spoken word is an oral performance of extemporaneous or composed pieces of free poetry. Austin has a number of venues that present spoken word, this program highlights the ranging styles of poets at an all-age program hosted monthly at Mitchie’s Gallery. This event features several artists who were involved with the Austin Neo Soul Team that placed 4th in the 2010 National Poetry Slam.

Austin Poetry Slam on KLRU Collective
Austin Poetry Slam events take place each Tuesday at the 29th Street Ballroom (located at 29th and Fruth Street). The Austin Poetry Slam (APS) is one of the longest running poetry venues in Texas. Founded in 1994 by Wammo of the Asylum Street Spankers and helmed for 15 years by former Poetry Slam, Inc. president, Mike Henry, Austin Slam is renowned for memorable and often raucous performances by many of the best poets in the slam poetry world. Get details about how to attend the next Austin Poetry Slam

This week, KLRU Collective presents an artistic spiritual meditation. Compassion and wisdom are spread as a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery constructed a sand mandala at the Blanton Museum of Art.

The Sand Mandala is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Each step in its creation and destruction are accompanied by rituals, ceremonies and chanting symbolizing the Buddhist philosophy in the transitory nature of material life. During January 9-13, 2013, the monks constructed a sand mandala in the Blanton’s Rapoport Atrium. The monks believe it takes divine understanding to make art which is really powerful.

We’ll be live from Studio 6A tomorrow night for an exciting evening of local arts and adventure !

Starting at 7pm, we’ll be live in studio 6A with a great line up of KLRU Collective highlights. If you haven’t visited our online arts portal, KLRU Collective, then tune in tomorrow to see our favorite videos of local movers and shakers in our creative community. And we’ll literally be moving and shaking with special guests from the Austin Samba School joining us!

Following our mix-tape of KLRU Collective, we’ll premiere the brand new Arts in Context episode, All My Friends Are Vampires, which documents Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the country, specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action, and just plain fantastic movies from around the world held each year in Austin, TX at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar. We’ll have Tim League, founder of Fanstastic Fest and the Alamo Drafthouse, in studio with us and we’ll giveaway a 2013 Fantastic Fest badge and an Alamo movie theater experience for you and your friends.

You’ll probably be hungry at 8:30pm, so we’ve planned a special Daytripper hour of the best in Texas BBQ. Chet joins us with the inside scoop on taking daytrips and brings some great gifts when you support the station, like a 2013 Daytripper BBQ Calendar, Daytripper Koozies, and a subscription to Texas Highways magazine.

E.A.S.T. is a self-guided tour and celebration of east Austin’s creative culture. The tour allows members of the community to explore the work of more than 300 artists at 150 studios, 28 exhibition spaces and a number of art events. Each year the tour is a behind-the-scenes look at working artists’ spaces and processes where people can learn more about an artist’s specific tools and techniques, watch demonstrations and talk directly to artists. In 2010, KLRU Collective started a collaboration with E.A.S.T. to capture the spirit and creativity of the artists and participants with a series of short videos. We have added to our collection this year with more than 60 videos of artists whose work was showcased during the 2012 festival. Here is a preview of who captured our attention this year:

It’s been almost a year since the launch of KLRU Collective, our online focus on Austin arts and artists. Tonight KLRU Collective makes a prime time debut during the PBS Arts Fall Festival. During the nine week festival PBS stations are given an option to include local pieces and we jumped at the chance to showcase some of Austin’s coolest arts.

The piece that will air tonight is a profile of a public art project at the University of Texas called Landmarks. KLRU staff was already well acquainted with one of these installations because it’s located outside of our building. Even though we see Peter Reginato’s Kingfisheveryday we didn’t know it is part of twenty-eight modern and contemporary sculptures on long-term loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Now we look forward to visiting all the sculptures and checking out the new acquisitions the program is making.

The most memorable shoot was for a piece that will air the last night of the festival. We profiled Forklift Danceworks “The Trash Project” on the last night of their performance which happened to be on one of the hottest days of the year. To make it even tougher the performance was located at the old airport…meaning limited shade and endless tarmac. But these imperfect weather conditions didn’t keep thousands of Austinites from coming to enjoy an amazing tribute to our city’s Solid Waste Services department. The experience and dance was definitely a highlight for me on this project.

The pieces airing during the festival have been produced by myself and Eve Tarlo with help from lots of KLRU staff. We’ve enjoyed sharing our viewpoint on Austin’s art scene this past year and we look forward to another great year of KLRU Collective.

-Sara Robertson

Sara Robertson is the Director of On-Air Marketing at KLRU. She has worked in television her whole career and feels lucky to work for Austin’s PBS station. In her spare time she enjoys coaching a women only swim program, reading and being crafty.

From the beloved classics to the edgy-cool things that are beyond description, KLRU Collective is all about the arts. Our goal is to present some of the unique, interesting and creative things taking place in Austin. We will never be able to showcase all of them as this is one of the most creativity rich communities in the world. But we will give you a glimpse – a quick peek – at what is being envisioned here. Visit the site at klru.org/collective

From April 1 to May 1, 16 pianos will hit the streets of Austin as part of Art Week Austin hosted by Art Alliance Austin. Located throughout downtown in public parks, streets and squares, the pianos are for any member of the public to play. The pianos are also for the public to decorate and personalize.
Get a map to all the piano locations here.

East Austin Studio Tour is a self-guided tour and celebration of east Austin’s creative culture. The tour allows members of the community to explore the work of more than 300 artists at 150 studios, 28 exhibition spaces and a number of art events. Each year the tour is a behind-the-scenes look at working artists’ spaces and processes where people can learn more about an artist’s specific tools and techniques, watch demonstrations and talk directly to artists. For the 9th annual tour, November 13-14 and 20-21, KLRU attempts to capture the spirit and creativity of the artists and participants with a series of short videos. Watch videos now

This is the first part of an exciting new web project, called KLRU Collective, to coincide with PBS’ focus on the arts.

From the beloved classics to the edgy-cool things that are beyond description, KLRU Collective is all about the arts. Our goal is to present some of the unique, interesting and creative things taking place in Austin. We will never be able to showcase all of them as this is one of the most creativity rich communities in the world. But we will give you a glimpse – a quick peek – at what is being envisioned here. We’ll also throw in a few episodes of Masterpiece Theater and Great Performances because, well, we’re PBS. Visit the site at klru.org/collective